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Fee Waiver

I received an email from Washington & Lee telling me that they were going to give me a fee waiver so that I would apply there. The thing is, I didn't even ask for one from the school. Is it common for schools to send fee waiver to people who haven't applied to the school yet? Does that mean I had a good chance of actually getting into the school?

I didn't think Washington and Lee even had a fee. I received an unsolicited fee waiver from William and Mary and applied. It can either mean they liked your LSAT score or perhaps the more cynical explanation, they just want to pad their applicant #'s for ranking purposes.

I received an email from Washington & Lee telling me that they were going to give me a fee waiver so that I would apply there. The thing is, I didn't even ask for one from the school. Is it common for schools to send fee waiver to people who haven't applied to the school yet? Does that mean I had a good chance of actually getting into the school?

I received an email from Washington & Lee telling me that they were going to give me a fee waiver so that I would apply there. The thing is, I didn't even ask for one from the school. Is it common for schools to send fee waiver to people who haven't applied to the school yet? Does that mean I had a good chance of actually getting into the school?

- Yes it's common. Almost everyone is signed up with the Candidate Referral Service even if they don't realize it. Schools can obtain limited information about you like LSAT score and GPA and then give you a fee waiver. Check your e-mail, more will come.

- How good your chance is to get in depends on the school. Generally a fee waiver means that you have a shot. Fee waivers don't typically go to applicants with zero shot. Some schools have more rigorous standards for fee waivers meaning that one's shot is good, other schools give them out liberally. Check lawschoolnumbers.com and see where your numbers fall relative to a given school. That's much more accurate that deciphering a fee waiver.

"We know that these are challenging financial times for a great many people, and we don't want an application fee to preclude you from applying to W&L Law. Consequently, we have made the necessary arrangements with the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) so that no fee will be assessed when you apply electronically via LSAC. For this admissions cycle, applying to W&L Law will be free of charge."